The first wave of our friends at MEF is leaving. Next week Carmen leaves and soon it will be Adrian. Douglas and the Khongwirs leave in December. Somewhere I need to find the energy to start again and make more friends. Jenny will be here the whole time we are and probably longer so she is one person who won’t leave us. Bob will be coming for the next year, taking Carmen’s place. I’m sure there will be more lovely people to meet and become friends with but right now that seems daunting.
I decided I needed to make a bit more of an effort to connect with a few MEF ladies. One MEF employee has been friendly towards me for the past year, always smiling and greeting me. I took advantage of the boys being on break to have Christine over for lunch. That is difficult during the school year since I am picking up the boys during that time. But we had a nice lunch together and I think it inched our friendship forward a bit. Another evening, we had the new coordinator of the Peace Center, Peter’s “boss”, over for dinner. Tasila is a lovely young woman who got her masters degree in Gender and Peacemaking from a university in Costa Rica. It was very easy to converse with her and enjoyable. She is Zambian but all her family is in Lusaka. I hope to see more of her.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Not much to report around here. Jason woke up staring at a huge cockroach which was clinging to the inside roof of his mosquito net. Found corn tortilla chips that amazingly enough, were not chutney flavor or something awful like that. Completed reading the book Mistress of the Art of Death in less than 24 hours. The new Sunday School routine was horrible. Sundays find Jason and Brendan grumpy in the morning in anticipation of church and Peter and I grumpy following church. Met Bob, Carmen’s “replacement” and he seems very nice. Carmen leaves in less than a week. The boys should be in school but aren’t. The jacaranda trees are full of their purple blossoms, reminding me of the streets of Pasadena. I found a school jumper second hand for Jason, saving MCC $20. My second attempt at hummus was even better than the first. So you know, that is our life this week.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Here I am a week later, attempting to blog again. I’ve got a perpetual headache and I’m not sure if it is because of all the dust and ash in the air due to the burning of trash and brush or if I’m just depressed because of Carmen’s departure.
Carmen left yesterday after a whirlwind week. She had planned a farewell braai for her friends and colleagues at work for Thursday night. That took a lot of preparation since feeding over 30 people is not an easy feat here. Just a few days before, her office decided to throw her a farewell dinner as well so the night before Carmen’s braai, several of us went to a guesthouse and enjoyed a nice dinner with her work colleagues. The very next night we had Carmen’s braai which came off nicely. We were exhausted by that time from all the cooking and baking of the last two days, plus Carmen needed to move out of her house and into our guestroom.
Adding to our tiredness of the week was a special event that Carmen, Jenny and I attended. When a woman gets married, a “chimbusa” is chosen to teach her all the things that she needs to know for marriage. Then, before the wedding, a “fimbusa” is held where the teaching continues with the other women in the community. It lasts all night with lots of drumming and dancing. I am not at liberty to share the details of what went on but, let me just say, it was quite an experience!
The boys have been begging for home church and this week we gave in. The boys helped me plan the worship time, thinking of the different aspects of worship that could be included. Our teaching time was about using our words to build each other up instead of tearing others down, taken from Ephesians 4. We used all our recycling items to build towers and then knock them down, coming up with words that encourage or destroy. Unfortunately, home church was really good, making it more difficult to convince the boys that it really is a good thing to worship with others, not just our family each week.
Sunday night we hosted a smaller farewell dinner for Carmen and invited a few of her closer friends. After dinner, we read memories, affirmations, and blessings, to Carmen that we had written on cards and which we then assembled into a little booklet for her to take home. Carmen has been an amazing friend to so many of us and while it is painful to say goodbye to her, we wouldn’t trade our time with her for anything in the world. I am having a hard time imagining the next two years without my dear, dear friend. She taught me so much this first year and I was fortunate to have a girlfriend like her live just across the road. She has been a real gift to me. Saying goodbye hurts.
Brendan and Jason finally started school yesterday. Both have Zambian teachers this year. I was hoping that Jason would get the other Reception teacher, also a Zambian, as she is a bit more lively and engaging but he will probably learn just fine either way. It feels different starting our second year at Lechwe, knowing a bit how things work and recognizing more faces. But it is still just as chaotic. I kept waiting for a letter or something in the mail but there was nothing. When the start of school was postponed a week, there was just a sign in front of the school. Things are a bit muddled and communication is not a strong suit so you just figure things out as you go. I feel like I am asking questions all the time, trying to figure things out. Like Jason is supposed to be taken into his classroom instead of sitting in the “pen” (gathering area) with the other children. The second term they will use the pen but I had to find that out by asking. Jason was very proud to sit on the bench in the pen the first morning, awaiting the arrival of his teacher. He looked so smart in his school uniform and he had a big smile on his face. Then we learned he was supposed to go straight to the classroom so we did that instead but he had his proud moment. We didn’t know what class Jason would be in or who his teacher was until I bought his school uniform and sneaked a peek at a list. I’m learning to go with the flow but the North American part of me still expects something different.
First day of school!
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